Press Release

TalkTalk Reduces Call Center Costs Dramatically by Creating a More Human Customer Service Conversation with Nuance

TalkTalk Saves £3 Million in Just Three Months by Deploying Nuance’s Natural Language Call Steering Solution

BURLINGTON, Mass., – September 18, 2014 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that TalkTalk has dramatically improved the customer service experience via Nuance’s Natural Language Call Steering solution. As demonstrated through this video, customers calling in to TalkTalk for assistance can now simply speak naturally when prompted by the interactive voice response (IVR) system to immediately be routed to the most appropriate contact center agent, improving customer satisfaction with faster, easier service.

TalkTalk offers phone, broadband and mobile service and provides the fastest growing TV offering in the UK. The company partnered with Nuance to personalize the customer experience and reduce unnecessary call transfers and call times, putting an end to customer frustration. Since implementing Nuance’s Natural Language Call Steering TalkTalk has reported:

A total cost saving of £3M in just three months of use, which includes:

a 16% reduction in misrouted calls

an average reduction in call time of 26 seconds, with some customer calls reduced by over 2 minutes

A call recognition accuracy rate of 94%, against a target of 70%; which further demonstrates the ease of use presented by the solution

ROI achieved in just 14 weeks

An increase in customer self-service of 28% that focused on allowing customers to more easily complete tasks such as ordering products

Nuance’s Call Steering enables callers to use their own words to express the reason for their call. Previously, TalkTalk customers were required to listen and respond to a series of phone menus with lengthy prompts that unnecessarily extended the calls, acting as a barrier between callers and what they needed. With Call Steering, callers are presented with an IVR prompt, such as “What can we help you with today?” and callers can answer naturally using their own terms. The system recognizes the caller’s intent and quickly routes each call to the appropriate agent or self-service based on hundreds of unique call paths, something that would be impossible to do quickly or accurately with menu trees. Nuance is also facilitating continuous improvement of TalkTalk’s new system, enabling TalkTalk to better understand its customers’ needs through tracking caller trends and identifying changes within areas of their business.

Eoin Power, Head of Contact Strategy & Planning at TalkTalk said: “We wanted to handle incoming calls in the most efficient manner to make the experience as fast and convenient as possible for customers. This resulted in one of the most successful deployments of the call steering technology in the UK and Ireland. The focused, collaborative approach we undertook with Nuance meant we could test and learn together in a safe environment during the process of designing the IVR. Our return on investment was gained in just 14 weeks, compared to the 12 months we had planned for. We now have the support from senior stakeholders to roll the project out further.”

“TalkTalk has seen significant benefits from their deployment of Nuance Natural Language Call Steering in a very short amount of time,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Enterprise Division, Nuance. “Their IVR system boasts strong accuracy, allowing calls to be routed correctly, very quickly. This provides a more convenient experience for the customer and a more efficient process for TalkTalk through increased automation, reduced call duration, and fewer agent-to-agent transfers.”

About Nuance Communications, Inc

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners